Foodspotting CEO Alexa Andrzejewski On The $10 Million Sale To OpenTable, And The Importance Of Telling Your Startup’s Story

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The startup world woke up to some exciting news this morning, with the $10 million cash sale of restaurant dish photo sharing and recommendation app Foodspotting to online restaurant reservation giant OpenTable.

So were very pleased to have Foodspotting co-founder and CEO Alexa Andrzejewski stop by TechCrunch TV this afternoon (after what was certainly a very long day) to give us the scoop on the deal and what’s next for Foodspotting now that it’s part of a larger company. First, she said, the good news for Foodspotting’s several million users is that the app is not going anywhere — OpenTable is committing to keeping it intact and continuing its development.

But I especially liked hearing about what Andrzejewski learned as a startup CEO, now looking back just after attaining the highly-sought-after “exit.” Here’s a bit of what she said:

“For me the big thing was just being driven by a clear vision, and getting people excited about that vision, and being able to tell great stories. Back four years ago when I started, it was just the seeds of this idea. And the most important thing was communicating that to other people and saying, ‘Are you excited about this idea, would you use something like this?’ Being able to find a cofounder was about telling a great story, like, ‘I have this vision for this app whwere you can find bacon milkshakes or okonomiyaki. Would you want to help build this with me?’ Throughout the way, meeting investors was about finding a great story, meeting potential acquirers was about figuring out a great story, saying, ‘What would this look like if we could work together?’ And crafting that story with the team we were working with.

I think the one thing that I’ve learned is that the most important thing you can do as a founder is talk about your idea publicly. Don’t try to keep it held back. And share your story with everyone who will listen, because you never know who you’ll meet or connect with on any day.”

The entire interview was very interesting, so please watch the video embedded above to see Andrzejewski talk about where Foodspotting will go next, the company’s history of pretty amazing parties, that highly-hyped “crackdown” on people taking photos in restaurants, what her favorite (non-foodie) app of the moment is, and more.

BioAlexa Andrzejewski is the Founder and CEO of Foodspotting, a website and mobile app that finds and recommends dishes instead of just restaurants. Foodspotting was named a “Hot Trend of 2010” by iTunes and one of Time Magazine’s “50 Best Websites of 2010,” and Alexa has been featured in Inc Magazine’s “30 Under 30” and Gourmet Live’s “50 Women Game-Changers” in food.
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